JupiterResearch SEM Report Skewed.

The Bruce Clay Inc. blog offered great insight into the Search Engine Marketing (SEM)study conducted by JupiterResearch. This SEM study was released yesterday.

I feel much of the SEM JupitarResearch report was correct, however skewed. While SEM was shown as a relatively new concept it failed to acknowledge SEM professionals as it should. For one, multitasking and the ability to perform numerous, yet related, functions is a strength for those of us in the SEM world.

When did multitasking become a bad thing?...
The survey seemed to want to attribute the multiple job roles to search marketing being an 'immature industry' with a serious lack of qualified professionals. While I will agree search marketing is relatively young, and that five other job functions may seem like a lot, I take a look at the Bruce Clay, Inc. office and the reported stats don't surprise me.

I can't say I was surprised. From my marketing experiences in an office environment, working with off site clientele, and my own online SEM business, multitasking has remained necessary to search engine marketing. Being "pigeon holed" distracts from the newest, latest, and greatest aspects of SEM while hampering the overall effect SEM can have through various avenues within a project.

Search marketing and is a complex field, filled with a set of constantly changing rules and methodologies. In order to stay competitive, search professionals must continually increase their knowledge base and rework their skills. Keeping their hands in all aspects of the industry allows them to do this and lets them see things from a grander scale.

Ever work in a cubicle? How about on a project including numerous "specialized" people whom you rarely mingle with? Separating projects into specialities may not prove useful in most SEM cases. Or in marketing as a whole.

View multitasking -- relevant to SEM -- as hands on experience, and everything changes. Multitasking often equals integration. SEO

Multitasking doesn't always equal overworked (don't you remember college?).

Misplaced tasking can and does drain your resources, whether one person delegates or does the entire project.

Another issue that sparked my interest: the survey found that 26 percent of search marketers play dual role as resident IT guy. That means one in four search marketers are working in the IT department, not the marketing department. Doesn't that person seem misplaced to you?

Perhaps my favorite line of all when considering whether you're company is usefully integrating its marketing through multitasking or not:

Would you let your IT guy write your press releases?

The JupiterResearch study took the approach that SEM positions are youthful and inexperienced. They based this view on multiple job roles taken by (or assigned to) search marketers. A huge oversight remains: what if these search engine marketers enjoy multitasking? Being on all sides of a project allows a holistic view rather than a sliver. Intergration is easier when one knows the whole.

What if search marketers don't take on multiple job roles because they have to. What if they do it because they can?

You can read the blog in its entirety at the Bruce Clay Inc website.

Kristen Owen writes for ContentWorth.com, a full service, online SEM company.